Libya and Egypt have asked the UN Security Council to lift an arms embargo on Libya to help it build up its army and tackle Islamic State and other extremist groups.

The request was a step back from Egypt’s call earlier this week for a UN mandate to intervene militarily in Libya.

Egypt had asked for UN intervention after IS extremists overran the Libyan city of Sirte and released a video purporting to show the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians.

The request for UN intervention seems to have lost traction between Monday and Tuesday, when Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi played down talk of Italian involvement in a military operation, having initially signalled his country was ready to commit troops.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had welcomed Italy’s stand. Yesterday he had a telephone conversation with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi about Libya.

Italy seems to have mellowed in its position as the US insisted there was no military solution to the Libyan conflict – a stand reflected in comments to this newspaper from US ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley on February 3.

Yesterday Italy called for urgent international action to halt Libya's slide into chaos and pledged it was ready to help monitor a ceasefire and train local armed forces.

UN special envoy Bernardino Leon told the council that Islamic State and other militants in Libya can only be defeated with a united government in place that has strong international support.

Army experts speaking to this newspaper have warned that Libyan in-fighting may make it very difficult for any foreign ground forces to identify who the enemy is. Though Egypt has bombed IS compounds in Libya as retribution for the killing of the 21 Christians, the situation could become very complicated on the ground if any of the non-terrorist factions view intervention as an affront to sovereignty.

And with the EU and the US focusing their efforts on Ukraine, where a ceasefire is on the brink of collapse, there seems to be little appetite for armed conflict in Libya.

kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com

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